Mrs Jarrett (Linda Bassett) is passing an open door in a garden fence when she peers
in and is invited - by someone who already seems to know her name - to join the
three other women in there for tea and a chat. Lena (Kika Markham) hasn't been
leaving the house, and the other women suspect she's not been taking her medication
properly. It's best never to mention cats in front of Sally (Deborah Findlay,) as it
upsets her (birds are fine, in fact they discuss birds a lot, as long as it doesn't
lead to talk of cats chasing them.) And Vi (June Watson) spent six years in prison for
accidentally-on-purpose killing her husband, after which her hairdressing career
never really recovered.
Escaped Alone is Caryl Churchill's latest play and
the women's conversations are delivered in the minimal style she often employs -
exchanging only fragments of sentences but the meaning still managing to come across
clearly.
